Heartless
by blackberriesandhoney
Summary: After season 3 finale, Keith wants Veronica to quit being a P.I after the Castle targets her. Starts immediately where show ends. Hints of LoVe, DoVe, DiMac. PiPark Lamb isn't dead, only thing changed. No set ship trying to be more like actual show.
1. Chapter 1

**Heartless**

**Summary: AU after series finale ("Mars, Bars" didn't end with Lamb's death), Veronica after a case goes wrong leaves the P.I business. Lamb recovers and returns from rehabilitation from his accident to discover that Keith has replaced him, and Neptune is a different place.**

**Musical Inspiration: Heartless by Kanye West**

**OOOO**

**Veronica:**

A broken humerus and a good fifty percent of her body covered in bruises. Veronica personally thought she had gotten off easy. Keith Mars, upon seeing that he daughter had been fed through a tube for six hours, disagreed.

"You are done." He said looking down at her.

She was trying to pretend that everything was okay by playing with the tv remote.

"No more investigating." He looked so intimidating in his uniform, not that Veronica was easily intimidated by her father.

She rolled her eyes, "Dad, it was just once."

"Just once? No, you've been playing the risk for a long time, this was just the worst." He sat down in the chair beside of her bed, "You're out."

OOOO

Veronica watched, arm in sling, as her father locked the doors to Mars Investigations. The gaudy "We're closed" sign hurting her eyes.

"Pouting isn't going to help at all." Keith said as he returned to her side.

"I know." She replied.

"Do you want me to drop you off at Hearst?"

She nodded, and followed him to the car.

OOOO

"You shouldn't be here." The words were hissed in her ear by passing Castle members.

They were all waiting. Waiting for her to tell her father-the newly elected Sheriff of Balboa County, that their fearless leader had had Veronica targeted by one of their more steroid-taking hoes.

She wasn't, of course. She might be a badass, but she wasn't stupid.

Piz slid into the seat beside of her, his eyes avoiding hers and slipping to her picked-at salad, "Hey, V."

"Hey." She replied, deciding not to comment on his choice of nickname for her. It made her think of Weevil.

"So, your dad won, which is great." He tried faking the previous Piz enthusiasm.

"Yeah." She followed his lead, and looked at her salad. She hadn't really been hungry, it was just her normal routine-something for her to grasp onto.

She didn't want to tell him that it was over. It was, and she could tell that he had an inkling of it. Neither of them wanted to vocalize it. They were grasping onto it, Piz more so than Veronica.

She, during a 2 A.M. bout of sleeplessness, had accepted that she really shouldn't have relationships with people. They ended up hurt or hurting her. She wasn't even discriminating against friendships, she was giving up all relationships that were not business related. Which meant, to her happiness, that she could keep Mac and Weevil. Wallace wasn't going anywhere, either. But Logan and Piz, those were the ones she was going to cut.

It was going to hurt. Hurt less than watching it get worse or watching something happen to them because of her job. As of now, she no longer loved either of them...at least, that's what she was going to tell her mind until she believed it.

She figured she'd wait a couple days. Just until normal didn't seem so far off.

OOOO

She almost didn't knock on Piz's door. She almost ran back to Mac and Parker's room. She almost decided that her previous notion of going cold-turkey on Piz and Logan.

In the end, her sense returned and she knocked. Remembering that her right arm was out of service, she knocked almost inaudibly on the door with her clumsier left hand.

The door swung open in a matter of seconds, and she wasn't surprised to see Piz grinning down at her.

This was going to be harder than she thought.

"Hey, I was just about to call you." He said, as she walked in and he shut the door.

"Oh, yeah?" She tried to sound nonchalant.

He pulled her into an embrace, "Yeah, my COMM class was canceled, so my evening is free for some time with my lady."

She was going to do the normal sarcastic drawl of "Yeahhhh...about that...", instead knowing that Piz wasn't like Logan-took the kinder route and removed herself from his arms.

She mentally manned up, "Actually, we need to talk."

"Okay." He smiled, a goofy grin that showed he had no idea what was coming.

"We can't...uh, I don't...um-" She took a breath, knowing if she didn't just say it, this whole thing would be one major epic fail, "We can't be together, anymore."

It took ten seconds for the grin to slip off his face.

It took fifteen seconds for his brain to really process it.

It took twenty seconds for him to say, "What?"

"My life is too dangerous and our relationship is destructive." She replied.

"Destructive? How is it destructive?" He asked, looking like his dog just died.

She sighed, "It's not, yet. But, it will be, and..." She knew that her next words were going to break him (she had rehearsed this...its for his own good), "And, I'm still in love with Logan."

"Oh."

She could see it. The breaking. He would probably hate her for that, if not hate, strongly dislike.

He stood and stared at her. She let him for a while.

"I'm going to go." She looked at her feet.

He exhaled rather loudly, "I think that would be a good idea."

She didn't look at him before rushing out of his room. She could feel his glare until the door shut between them.

OOOO

She had decided it would be better not to seek Logan out. Instead, she was going to wait until he came to her, before letting him know that they were never to associate on a personal level again.

She almost told Mac of her plan. She was two words away from telling Wallace.

She didn't because it would be much to personal.

Personal wasn't allowed anymore.

OOOO

**Lamb: **

It turns out that a blunt blow from a baseball bat to the right part of the skull can completely screw up your motor skills. Lamb after awakening from a coma, could barely move his body without difficulty. He almost didn't care. He had almost told them to just let him be gimp, he had nothing to live for anyway.

"Don't talk like that." Sacks had reprimanded him after Don asked the doctor why didn't the just pull the plug.

Three people outside of his family had visited him, during his hospital stay: Sacks, Madison Sinclair (on the rebound from Echolls, and left almost immediately), and Keith Mars (for questioning). He was almost happy when his brother had taken him to the rehab center in Nevada.

Three months (March to May) later, Lamb was standing in the threshold of his neptune apartment. Not wanting to be there anymore than he wanted to be alive.

Keith Mars was the sheriff, now. Even though it was going to hurt his pride, he was planning on groveling to Mars to get a deputy job. He loved law enforcement.

His apartment was cold, dark and dusty. Perfect, he thought as he sunk into his couch.

OOOO

"Don, you have an interview with Sheriff Mars on Tuesday at nine." Sacks grinned across the booth.

Neither of them were used to Sacks' using "Don" as a name for Lamb.

He had spent a week pent up in his perfectly-suited-for-his-mood apartment, excluding trips to the grocery store, and Jerry (it was weird to use Sacks' first name as well) basically dragged him out.

"I know that it's going to be hard, but don't be a dick when you meet with him." Sacks sipped his coffee, speaking between sips.

Lamb raised an eyebrow, "I'm not a dick."

Sacks set the coffee down, "I know that, but, Don, sometimes you act like it, especially towards the Mars family, and you need this job."

Since when was Jerry Sacks his father? Lamb wanted to say something to express that he was a grown man and no one was going to tell him what to do.

He couldn't do it though. Sacks was the only friend he had, really. No one else, whom he used to believe to be friends with, had even tried contacting him in the five months since he was beaten with a baseball bat.

"I'll be on my best behavior...dad." He had to be a little of an ass, he was Don Lamb.

Sacks rolled his eyes, and picked his coffee back up.

OOOO

**Dick and Logan:**

Dick Casablancas and Logan Echolls were three things: roommates, best friends, and equally pissed at the Castle.

Of course, Logan was pissed because they had filmed Veronica having sex with Piz and had had her beaten to a pulp.

Dick, on the other hand, was pissed that he had never been invited to join the elite group. He was the definition of 'elite', or so he thought. He should bring them down.

Though they weren't telling the other, Logan and Dick as they watched mindlessly the Godfather trilogy, they were both planning the end of the Castle. Dick felt pathetic because it was a Friday night, and he was sitting around watching movies with his 'bestie' like a fucking twelve-year-old girl.

Logan, who was more than used to pathetic behavior, was checking his phone every thirty seconds or so.

They had made it halfway through the second Godfather before Logan really got on Dick's nerves.

"Dude!" He half-groaned/half-yelled.

"What?" Logan snapped back, his focus on the tiny screen of his cell phone.

"Seriously? She's not going to call you." Dick hated being such a...well a dick towards Logan, but the boy needed to get real.

Logan looked down towards the phone again, "I know."

"Then why are you being such a pussy?" Dick stood up, "We are men, we need to do manly things, not sit around like a bunch of chicks syncing up our cycles or some shit."

Logan laid his phone down, and lounged back into the couch, "You might have a point."

Dick smirked, "There is no might to it, I do have a point. You and Parker are over, Veronica's with Piz, it's time to forget chicks as long term assets, cause dude, they aren't."

Logan looked stony at the mention of Piz.

Dick moved forward and put a hand on Logan's shoulder, "It's time to get out there and tap some ass."

Logan looked from Dick to the TV. As if the universe was trying to send him a message, Tom Hagen, on screen, entered the brothel.

Logan smiled to himself, pushing away thoughts of what Veronica would think of him.

"Lets go." Logan said, grabbing the remote.

Dick high-fived him and ran into his room to get ready.

Logan stared at the screen for a couple more moments, before hitting the button.

The screen going dark as he headed towards his own room.

OOOO

**Veronica:**

She almost jumped when she saw Don Lamb coming out of her father's office in a deputy's uniform. She almost believed that the last couple months hadn't happened. She tried not to let her emotions cross her face, she felt bad for the former sheriff, she had since she had heard about his accident. She felt even worse for never going to visit him in the hospital.

"Mars." He smirked, upon noticing her.

He looked the same. He didn't seem as though anything had happened.

"Deputy." Her smile was genuine because now she was right.

He crossed his arms, and leaned against the wall infront of her, "I'm guessing that you think that you're so funny now, huh?"

"I don't think, I know, _Deputy_." She walked past him and into her father's office.

"So, Lamb came tail between his legs to beg for a job?" She grinned, pulling out the bagged lunch she had made for Keith.

He grabbed the lunch and set it out of the way, and continued filling out some form for a moment before looking at his daughter, "Not exactly. He needed a job, I needed another deputy. And despite our past, I know how Lamb feels about this job."

"At least now, he won't have as much work not to do." She smirked, going around the desk and planting a fast kiss on Keith's forehead, "I gotta get to Hearst."

Lamb was standing at the coffee machine, waiting on her.

To humor him, she stopped and waited for him to speak.

He lost the look of sarcasm, "I'm sorry for not believing you about the rape."

Her mouth dropped a bit, "Uh...uh..wh...what brought that on?"

"Well, that blow to the head could have killed me, but it didn't, and all I could think about when I was in the hospital, was all the shit that I did-the really shitty stuff." He paused to put creamer into his coffee, "I just wanted to tell you that I regret how I acted that day."

"I'm not going to forgive you." Her volume dropped, and she looked up at him like it still hurt to think of it as much as it had the day it happened.

He nodded, "I know, I wouldn't either. I just wanted to say, I'm sorry."

He walked away. She noticed it, the slight shake in his steps. It wouldn't be noticeable to the untrained eye, but Veronica was looking for it.

OOOO

**The Most Uncomfortable Lunch Ever:**

"Ohh, fruit cups." Parker's eyes lit up, and Mac couldn't help but roll her eyes as the blonde ran towards the cups of bright melon and grapes.

Mac paid for her LifeWater and veggie burger, and joined Wallace and Piz in the middle of the table court.

"What's wrong with him?" She nodded towards Piz, who was sitting with his head in his hands, his floppy hair covering his face from the angle it was tilted.

Wallace shook his head rapidly. Mac nodded, so it was an off-limit convo.

"Veronica left me." Piz grumbled and sighed.

Parker with her fruit and large plate of fries, flounced to the table at the same time, "Well, I broke up with Logan."

Piz lifted his head, he was wearing the strangest smile, "I got dumped for Logan...man, life sucks."

"I knew it." Parker slammed her drink onto the table, "That little sneak."

"Hey, now." Wallace chimed in, "She is a detective, sure, but not that kind of sneak."

"I was talking about Logan." Parker replied.

As if the fates were getting a laugh out of the day, Veronica came into the cafe, cradling her arm to her chest. She had no intention of eating, she was looking for Mac and Parker.

She was half-way to their table when she noticed Piz. To make his life easier, she was going to turn and leave, but before that thought could completely play itself out, "Veronica!" Wallace shouted looking particularly uncomfortable.

She faked a grin, "Hey!"

It took all of her not to run away.

OOOO

**AN: **

**I finished season three the other day, and was completely unsatisfied with the ending of the show. **

**So this is my beginning of my version of Season Four. **

**Lamb isn't dead, I don't know yet if this is going to be DoVe or not yet. I want it to be realistic to the show and Veronica's relationships are usually complicated and you know that there is still something left with Logan...so yeah. **

**Anyway, I'd love to hear what you think, if I should continue or stick to my day job. **


	2. Lost

**Heartless**

**Chapter Two: One-Word Summary: LOST**

**Musical Inspiration: I Wanted Your Love by Alexz Johnson**

**OOOO**

**Dick and Logan: **

Dick smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He was home, figuratively speaking. He continued to grin as he waded though the sea of hot chicks and dudes looking to score to the bar.

Logan not wanting to be a complete prude, tried to at least lose the look of misery and contempt as he followed Dick.

Simultaneously, Dick handed him a beer and a girl with an easy grin and little clothing walked up to him.

"I'm Candy." She smiled.

Logan sighed, this was going to be an epic fail.

"Hey, Candy. I'm Dick." Dick smirked.

"Wow, you're both named after things that people like to suck, you should have a lot to talk about." Logan's voice dripped with sarcasm, and he planned an exit strategy.

OOOO

**The Newly Formed Fantastic Four:**

Wallace had to admit it felt weird hanging with Piz, Parker, and Mac without Veronica. But, when Piz got that puppy dog look about him and Wallace knew that Veronica was busy sulking about her father and her arm, he couldn't say no.

Veronica was still his best friend, that was never going to change, but he needed to hang out with other people...occasionally.

"Isn't this fun?" Parker asked, sipping at some brightly colored drink.

Mac looked slightly miserable. Wallace mirrored the feeling as he and Piz drank non-alcoholic beer (out of fear of Keith Mars).

"Tons." Piz replied gulping down his 'beer' as though he wished it would have the same effects as the real stuff.

Wallace felt kind of pathetic with the surrounding pathetic, but he had no other plans for the seemingly endless Friday night. The saddest part to him was that because there was four of them, two guys and two girls, all the girls in the bar assumed he was on a date...at least that's what he used as an excuse for the fact no girls had approached him.

"Well, screw Logan!" Parker slammed her glass down, sloshing a bit of the pink drink onto the table and Mac's hand, "I'm going to dance!"

Piz wanting to feel as good as Parker looked like she felt, "Me, too!"

They looked stupid. Not really dancing together, but sort of near each other. Mac watched with wide eyes and Wallace could barely see from his position of bent over with laughter.

Parker was a good dancer, moving with precision, her hips to the music. Piz on the other hand, looked as though he was having a seizure. And like every crappy movie, Wallace couldn't help but notice the way that they looked at each other when the fast music died and a slow one filled the speakers.

"Oh no." Mac murmured.

"Oh, hell." Wallace replied.

The laughter and mocking dead from their eyes as Piz slid his arm around Parker's waist and she grinned up at him.

_I drift away to a place_

_another kind of life_

_take away the pain_

_I create my paradise_

_Everything I've held has hit the wall_

_What used to be yours _

_Isn't yours at all_

_Falling apart in all that I'm asking_

_Is it a crime _

_Am I over-reacting?_

_Oh, he's under my skin _

_Just give me something to get rid of him_

The words fell over Wallace and Mac as they watched Parker's mouth move slightly, and they both chuckled. The two on the dance floor moved closer as more people joined.

"We gotta do something." Wallace said, not taking his eyes off the dancing two.

"Veronica is not going to be happy about this." Mac was nodding her head, even though the gesture was lost on Wallace.

"Dammnnn."

OOOO

**Lamb: **

He was on the bottom of the totem pole now. Keith had put him on the crap duties like manning the station during the graveyard shift. Lamb didn't really care though, he was back, from a coma and into law enforcement.

But as the clock read two A.M., even Don couldn't control those thoughts that flooded. Maybe he shouldn't be alive. Maybe Bitando should have killed him. Maybe he should stop being such a pussy and accept the fact he was alive. He sounded like a whiny mess when he started all the self-hating shit, and he knew it needed to stop. But it was late at night, and his legs were shaking slightly.

He wasn't expecting Veronica Mars to come walking in at 2:35 A.M. Especially when it wasn't because she was under arrest.

"Deputy." She greeted, heading straight to the coffee table.

"Mars." He returned, getting up and slowly on tense legs walked over to her.

She was drinking the coffee straight, something he hadn't started doing until his twenty-ninth birthday, "You didn't have to get up, I was going to go over to your desk." She didn't look at him when she spoke, she looked at the floor, surveying his feet before moving her gaze to her own feet.

"I'm not a cripple." He said, more bitchy than he had wanted, but he didn't wanted to be treated any different than before.

She rolled her eyes, and finally looked up at him from under her lashes in that coy way that made him want to punch something and kiss her at the same time, "I know that, Lambie Pie, I just know a fine man like yourself shouldn't have to move for a dame like me."

"That's closer to the truth than you'd like to admit, Mars." He leaned against the way in that way that made her want to slap him and knee him at the same time.

"Call me Private Investigator Mars, my father is Mars." She knew it was a lame comeback, but she really couldn't conjure anything better because it was late and she really wasn't in the mood.

This whole 2 A.M. being awake thing was starting to piss her off. The ceiling of her bedroom was getting boring. She had decided to go on an adventure. A rather lame adventure to the Sheriff's Department, but anything was better than lying in bed thinking about Piz, Logan, Lamb's apology, her rape and the fact that her father had banned her from investigating. Her train of thought went exactly down that path, but she wanted to investigate, she was going to the FBI, it was going to be her life.

Keith disagreed and wanted her to pursue something different. She was going to try and find a medium, but now, she was upset about it. She would have to go back to small time and payout since he had shut down the office building.

Lamb smirked, "I hear that the Private Investigator title had been dropped."

"For the moment." She looked down into the bitter coffee, Lamb might be stupid but he had made it a point to exploit her weaknesses in the past, why should now be any different?

He gave her a stern look, "Your father is right, it is too dangerous."

"I'm used to dangerous."

"What happened was mild, compared to what can happen."

"Can being the watch word. It doesn't mean it will, I know what I'm doing."

"I did, too."

She fell silent. His words were harsh, but that didn't faze her. He had been a decent sheriff, though she would never admit it. Her father had said that he hadn't even seen the bat coming, that Bitando had attacked from behind.

A satisfied smirk ran across his face, ending as quickly as it started. He walked back to his desk, she tried not to focus on the slight shake to his walk.

OOOO

**Veronica: **

When she finally woke up at four in the afternoon, she didn't expect it too be to insistent pounding on the door. She didn't expect to see Dick Casablancas on the other side of the door, either.

"Dick?" She raised an eyebrow, suddenly caring that she had fallen in bed with a cut-off tank and boy shorts last night.

He looked at her "clothes" and grinned, "Not right now, we've got business, but maybe after."

"UGH!" She left the door open and stomped back into her room to grab a robe.

He was still standing in the threshold of the front door, smirking, when she returned.

"I need a new driver's license." He said, pulling out his wallet.

She headed straight towards the coffee machine, it was too early in the afternoon for this, "Why?"

"Because I can't find mine, and I'm pretty sure it's gone for good, I kinda lost my wallet."

"Go to the DMV."

The coffee was just beginning to drip into the glass pot. Her eyes were more interested in looking at the small stream of coffee than the stupid expression that no doubt was on Dick's face.

"I'm going to, but I want one with a older age."

She looked back at him. His hand stretched out with cash, the top bill was a hundred.

Well, she needed to make money someway.

OOOO

**Emma: **

"Dick Casablancas?" He was finally waking up. Emma Deel was extremely happy about it, she was a sucker for a happy ending and at Franklin Memorial Hospital, waking up from an accident like Mr. Casablancas was a very happy ending.

"Huh?" He looked lost.

"You're Dick Casablancas, right?"

"Wh...What?" He started to panic, probably realized he couldn't move his left hand because his right was moving frantically checking out the multitudes of cords attached to his body.

"Sir, you've had an accident. You've been out for almost 24 hours, we were getting worried."

He must not have really understood, "What? Accident?"

"Yes, Mr. Casablancas."

"Who is Mr. Casablancas?"

"You are."

"No, I'm not."

"Then who are you?"

"I...I-I uh...uh...I don't...don't know."

"Well, you had a credit card in your pocket that said Dick Casablancas."

Slight recognition crossed his face, "It sounds familiar."

"It's all going to sound, different, until you regain your memory."

"When will that be?"

"We can't say for sure, every patient is different."

OOOO

**Piz and Parker: **

The best part about Sunday breakfast at Hearst's cafe was that it was surprisingly busy. Piz had felt weird asking Parker for breakfast in the first place, but all these people around made it not as awkward.

Nothing had happened on Friday, other than the dancing, and despite Wallace's lecture when they got back to their dorm, Piz felt nothing other than friendship for Parker. They both had been the rebounds of the 'epic' Logan and Veronica relationship.

Parker clearly wasn't over Logan, more so the way Logan wasn't in love with her that she wasn't over. And he was no where near close to over Veronica.

Wallace didn't believe him and had drove off on early Saturday morning. He hadn't texted or called, but Fennel was Veronica's best friend, so her habits undoubtably rubbed off on him.

"I love eggs." Parker sounded stupid when she said it. Piz thought how Veronica would never say something like that, and the weirded out look that Piz had, reminded Parker that that is exactly how Logan would have responded.

Piz smiled to himself, Wallace had nothing at all to worry about.

OOOO

**Veronica: **

"Morning, Deputy." She grinned, handing Lamb a box of donuts, "I figured a fine officer like yourself would need a pick-me-up."

"What do you want, Veronica?" He asked, seeing right through the donut act.

He was stuck on the crappy Sunday shift as well.

"I need to use the laminator for a moment." She grinned and batted her eyes as if that would work in her favor.

"Fine." Lamb didn't protest.

That wasn't like Lamb, he had to suspect she was doing something illegal, hell before when she went to the restroom, he thought it was terrorism or something being planned.

"After I'm done with that, I need to use the Lamb-inator." She winked.

He just rolled his eyes, returning to his seat with the donuts.

She gave him a moment...nothing.

"Come on." She said in her faux-Italian accent, "Give me something to work with here."

"Uh...the Lamb-inator is just like a laminator, plastic required and hot?" He replied in the blandest tone, she had ever hear him use.

"Once more, with feeling."

"Go do what you need to do, Mars." He rolled his eyes, taking a bite out of a powdered donut.

His lips were covered in powdered sugar, and something in Veronica compelled her to stare longer than she should.

She shook whatever that was away and hurried to laminate Dick's new driver's license. That boy might be dumb as hell, but he paid well.

OOOO

**AN: **

**So who has amnesia? **

**Do you really think there is nothing behind Piz and Parker? **

**I don't know, do you? **

**Review, my loves. **


End file.
